History

SOCRATES

Life&Times
by Sean Sheehan

Socrates (470–399 BC), the most famous Ancient Greek philosopher, was sentenced to death by the Athenian assembly in 399 BC for atheism and corrupting the young men of the city. The question of why a thinker who has been revered for millennia afterwards should have met such a fate is but one of the ‘Socrates problems’ addressed in this enlightening study.

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MARCO POLO

Life&Times
by Jonathan Clements

Marco Polo (1254–1324), the son of a Venetian merchant family, left Europe with his father and uncle in 1271 on a trading mission to the court of the Mongol Emperor of China, Khubilai Khan. The man who returned 24 years later was unrecognisable, but soon accepted as Marco by his family when he showed them the jewels he had brought back from the East. Captured by the Genoese in a later battle, he dictated his memoirs to his cellmate. The result was 'A Description of the World', more misleadingly known as the 'Travels'.

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Tom Paine

The Life of a Revolutionary
by Harry Harmer

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) thrust himself into world history on the eve of his 39th birthday in January 1776, rousing the North American Colonies to break with Britain. His hope was an independent republic that would act as a democratic beacon to old Europe. Born in Thetford, England, Tom Paine was an author, political theorist, and humanitarian. He will be best remembered for being influental in to revolutions, the American and the French.

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Trotsky

Life&Times
by Dave Renton

Leon Trotsky became the leading spokesman of Russian Revolution, and was the founder of the victorious Red Army of 1918-1921, and did more than anyone to create the early soviet state.Yet Trotsky was out-manoeuvred by Stalin in the struggle to succeed Lenin. In the years followed, he developed the firts systematic critique of Stalin's dictatorship. In 1929, he and his wife were forced out of Russia, moving from Turkey to France, and finally to Mexico, where he was brutally assassinated by a Spanish communist in 1940.

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CHE GUEVARA

Life&Times
by Frank Niess

Had he lived Che Guevara would have turned 80 on 14 June 2008. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHE! He embodied the dream of a social utopia for a whole generation and became a political icon for many born after his death in 1967. This biography explores the myth and the reality of this enduringly fascinating revolutionary. His daughter Aleida recently denounced the commercialisation of her father's image. 'Something that bothers me now is the appropriation of the figure of Che that has been used to make enemies from different classes. It's embarrassing,' said the eldest daughter from Guevara's second marriage during an internet forum sponsored by Cuba's government ahead of her father's 80th birthday.

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Price: £7.99